Transcript


Question:
Why is it that one income loss report can say an insurance loss claim is worth a million dollars and another one can say it is worth nothing?

Answer:
This is a question we hear often.

Let's first assume both sides have access to the exact same information. But what sometimes happens is that the way the information is provided is not telling the whole story. For example, some information that should have been available was not produced. On the other hand, sometimes it seems that there is more information available than should normally have existed, which may indicate some manipulation of documentation to support a claim.

Income loss reports can be prepared by economists, actuaries or accountants.

The Valuations Forensics Litigation group at Crowe Soberman consists of trained forensic accountants, whose job is to notice when information is missing or not telling the real story, and make sure we don't develop calculations based on unreliable documents. Our calculations are always based on reasonable assumptions that are clearly supported with thorough analysis and research, using both financial analysis and an investigative mindset. As experts who are qualified to testify in Court, we owe a duty to the Courts to be impartial. We also owe it to our clients — whether plaintiff or defence — to produce reports that are going to be accepted as objective and independent. That's why we never rely on questionable information or ignore information that would be seen as creating bias in our results.

If opposing experts have equal access to information, yet their reports state a million dollar loss and a zero loss, at least one of those reports likely includes some level of bias, insupportable assumptions or a failure to consider the big picture as well as the finer details. At Crowe Soberman we never produce a report calculating an income loss that is unsupportable, nor do we state that the income loss is worth nothing if there is clear evidence that there must have been a financial impact. We understand that both plaintiffs and defendants want to get back to living their lives. So it's important to our team that we help resolve the problem, not create a new one by getting in the way of reaching a timely resolution.

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